The present invention relates generally to the field of electronic packaging and, more specifically, to the miniaturization of electronic arrays.
Current trends in the consumer market reflect the demand for smaller, lighter products with enhanced features. The need for enhanced functionality demands more memory capacity with decreased available real estate. In order to meet this demand, fabrication of portable products such as cell phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and digital cameras may require the implementation of smaller and thinner overall system technologies. Also, to satisfy the needs for high-performance, miniaturized, portable and space-efficient products, the trend in the packaging industry has been to achieve higher system density.
It may be advantageous to implement high density packaging in a number of applications. Such applications may include, for example, medical diagnostic systems, such as, but not limited to ultrasound and mammography. Due to their small size and great demand for functionality, portable medical diagnostic systems may require miniature, high-density electronic packaging.
However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve higher package density while maintaining a small footprint for electronic systems, which may be limited to two-dimensional fabrication techniques. In certain electronic systems, electronic devices may be implemented to drive other devices in the electronic system, such as, but not limited to transducers. Presently, electronic drive devices are generally positioned in the X-Y plane, relative to the other system components, such as transducers, resulting in a huge footprint. Furthermore, the density of input/output (I/O) required for coupling the individual transducers with the associated electronics may be very high. Also, the density of I/O may be too large for traditional interconnect strategies to handle. Presently, the interconnect lengths required to couple the transducer elements to the electronic device may be disadvantageously long.
It would be desirable to fabricate electronics packages having electronic devices and sensors, such as transducers, wherein the packages have increased density but do not have increased footprints. Further, it would be desirable to position the associated electronics devices of the package in close proximity to the individual transducer elements of the transducer array in order to minimize system size, complexity, interconnect lengths and to enhance the performance of the transducer arrays.